pretty girls don't shoot themselves... that's a guy thing, this smells. oh, yeah... that old time six shooter is more than a little odd
Posted on 11/11/2004 12:38:11 PM PST by EggsAckley
'The Rape of Nanking' author is found dead
Iris Chang, the bestselling Bay Area author whose book on Japanese atrocities in China during World War II catapulted her to fame and prominence, was found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. She was 36.
Chang drove down a road south of Los Gatos and shot herself in her car, authorities said.
Santa Clara County sheriff's Deputy Terrance Helm said a motorist driving Tuesday morning on Highway 17 south of the Cats restaurant in an unincorporated area near Los Gatos noticed a car a short distance down a private water district road. He pulled over to check on the vehicle and called 911.
Investigators found a frontier-type six-gun and a note in the car, according to sources with knowledge of the case.
The official cause of death was pending.
Chang suffered a breakdown and was hospitalized during a recent trip researching her fourth book about U.S. soldiers who fought the Japanese in the Philippines during World War II, her former editor and agent Susan Rabiner told the Associated Press.
Chang continued to suffer from depression after she was released from the hospital. In a note to her family, she asked to be remembered as the person she was before she became ill -- ``engaged with life, committed to her causes, her writing and her family,'' Rabiner said.
Chang's apparent suicide came as a great shock to her friends and colleagues.
``I can't believe it. She was such a shining star,'' said Ignatius Ding, a close friend since they met at a history conference in 1994.
excerpted LINK
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
FYI:
http://vikingphoenix.com/public/rongstad/news/bamr/bamr0004.htm
* IRIS CHANG - Inside the space of 15 days, Sunnyvale resident Iris Chang got herself in the news twice for criticism aimed at two former enemies, Japan, and the United States. But both items were mostly ignored by Bay Area media.
* On May 18 stories broke about Chang's falling out with the Japanese publisher of the translation of her latest book, and on May 29th she aimed criticism at the U.S. House of Representatives. The June 3 issue of Asian Week published Chang's remarks about the Cox Report saying it contains unsubstantiated accusations of spying by Tsien Hsue-shen (Qian Xuesen), a Chinese scientist she wrote about in an earlier book. Except for Asian Week covering Chang's remarks about the government report, I couldn't find any local coverage of either story. Associated Press and New York Times provided the best coverage of Chang and her travails with a Japanese publisher, as far as I know, only Asian Week covered Chang's remarks about the Cox Report.
* Chang's earlier book, Thread of the Silkworm, told how U.S. missile scientist Tsien Hsue-shen was accused of being a communist by U.S. authorities, and deported back to his native China. Tsien went on to become the father of modern Chinese missile science, designing the Silkworm missile.
* The latest round of Iris Chang controversies began with the May 18 Associated Press story from Tokyo, "Publisher cancels Japanese translation of Rape of Nanking' book" by Mari Yamaguchi. ...and ended with the June 3 story in Asian Week by Perla Ni, "?Rape of Nanking? Author Denounces Cox Report: Iris Chang tells conventioneers that her research was misused".
* Asian Week story, Iris Chang Denounces Cox Report, telling conventioneers that her research was misused. According to the June 3 story by Perla Ni, Chang "attacked the Cox report?s accusation that a Chinese spy was responsible for revolutionizing the Chinese ballistic missile program in the late 1950s."
* Clinton Administration withheld information: that might clear Tsien. Asian Week says "Chang called the Select Committee to ask whether it had documents proving Tsien?s espionage." She was told that she would "have to take the committee?s word that the report was factually correct." Chang added in the Asian Week story; "If they?re (Cox Report) going to call Tsien a spy, then they should open up their records and prove it ... You can?t have a government arbitrarily labeling people as Communists or spies." According to statements by Committee Chairman Rep. Christopher Cox (Republican, Newport Beach), the Clinton Administration trimmed out many pages of information that may contain the answers sought by Iris Chang. Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh stated that "100 pages" were snipped out of the public version of the Cox Report by Administration censors citing the need to protect classified information. There has been some big media coverage of the concern in Bay Area Chinese communities over the stereotyping of Chinese by the Cox Report, but the skimpy coverage of Chang's reaction to the Cox Report would certainly be news to readers of the Chronicle, Examiner, Mercury News and Contra Costa Times who most likely don't know about her book on Tsien either.
* Iris Chang told Bay Area Media Review that: "There is a slight mistake in the AsianWeek story. While it is true that the Cox report cited facts from THREAD OF THE SILKWORM, I did not claim that the report used my research as proof that Tsien was a spy. Instead, I said that the Cox committee would not reveal where it got its sources about Tsien's alleged espionage. Otherwise, the story is essentially accurate." The Cox Committee probably could not release the information because the Clinton Administration prevented its release to the public.
http://www.asianweek.com/060399/news_irishchang.html
* Iris Chang, the best-selling author of The Rape of Nanking, attacked the Cox report?s accusation that a Chinese spy was responsible for revolutionizing the Chinese ballistic missile program in the late 1950s.
* ?If you think that stereotyping is a thing of the past because we now live in a multicultural and progressive society, just read the Cox report on alleged Chinese spying in this country,? said Chang, speaking in front of a crowd of 600 at Aspire ?99, an Asian American leadership conference in Burlingame last Saturday.
* ?As the person who wrote the definitive biography of Tsien, all I know is that the U.S. never officially charged Tsien with espionage ... [and] in the end they found no convincing evidence that he was either a Communist or a spy,? Chang said.
* ?After three years of researching Tsien?s life, I was not able to determine whether he was a spy or even a Communist,? said Chang, who said that her Freedom of Information Act requests have yet to yield any documents proving that Tsien did or did not pass classified information to China before his deportation. ?I was honest with my readers and said the riddle would remain unsolved until the U.S. government or Chinese government declassified all of its records on the subject.?
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a03e9ba745c.htm
* The 80-20 PAC has vowed to deliver 80% of Asian-American votes to Al Gore, Jr. and Joseph Lieberman, the Democratic Party's standard bearers for President and Vice President. One 80-20 leader, former UC Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien, has said 80-20's members will urge all Asian Americans to help "form a swing vote bloc of 80% to become a vital political force in the outcome of this year's and future elections." (L.A. Times 8-28-2000).
* 80-20 PAC mailing address is 351 N. Emerson Rd., Lexington, MA 02420-1612. 80-20 PAC treasurer is Yu-Chi Ho. 80-20 PAC has raised $195,555 through Oct. 1, 2000, and cash on hand as of October 25 was $193,902.28 (FEC).
* Charges of Chinese spying - have fueled 80-20 PAC, with members and supporters demonstrating against the federal government's prosecution of Wen Ho Lee at the Los Alamos, New Mexico labs. In March Los Angeles Times cited a poll showing that 45% of Asians are identifying themselves as Democrats, up from 36% in 1996. A reaction to the fund-raising scandal at a Buddhist temple is cited as the reason. The paradox is, while Republicans such as Senator Dan Burton of Indiana are pushing for the investigations, the Democratic appointed Department of Justice under Janet Reno is leading the prosecution. Election year political pressure from the White House may have led to dropping of all but one charge against Wen Ho Lee.
* In a 1999 story in Asian Week, author Iris Chang denounced the Cox Report, telling conventioneers that her research was misused. According to a June 3 story by Perla Ni, Chang "attacked the Cox report?s accusation that a Chinese spy was responsible for revolutionizing the Chinese ballistic missile program in the late 1950s." Iris Chang was referring to her book, Thread of the Silkworm, and is also author of The Forgotten Holocaust: The Nanking Massacre.
This whole thing seems more and more bizarre as it unfolds ...
MacArther pardoned Japanese Dr.'s who operated/experimented on American boys while they were awake/no anesthesia.
Very few Americans ever heard about that, I suspect.
It WAS undercovered. Japan was able to shift the blame due to the atomic bombing of Japan, and Tokyo War Crime trials were not conducted as well as Nuremberg's.
That was in exchange for their technology. Though yeah, I will forever hate MacArthur for that. It pisses me off how no one knows about Japanese war crimes.
I look at that photo and I see an ambiguous smile. She does not look happy even then. Her mouth smiles but her eyes do not.
Horrible waste.
I don't blame her for promoting her book as something new and dramatic -- many authors do that. But I disagree that the history she reported was unknown, and worse that it was somehow intentionally concealed.
pretty girls don't shoot themselves... that's a guy thing, this smells. oh, yeah... that old time six shooter is more than a little odd
Well, I'll agree there. But Japan really doesn't cover WWII. I asked my Japanese friend about it, and he said that it's like the USA and Vietnam; you have to cover so much in history class you barely touch on it.
But I think what Chang did was important: she made it well-known to the public, the average person. Though again, it is definitely not the best book on the subject.
OK, my mistake. I thought you were referring to knowledge globally, not in Japan. It is certainly true even now that the war barely merits coverage in Japanese schools. I often hear Japanese say that for them "the war" started in 1941, when in fact it started in 1931. They do often think of the war as against America from 1941-5, rather than against much of Asia from 1931-45.
Incidentally, the only nonwhite judge at the Tokyo trials, from India, vigorously dissented from many of the convictions. He argued that Western colonialists had no business sitting in judgment of Japanese colonialists. His opinion was prominently displayed at the notorious Yasukuni shrine when I visited some years ago.
But I think what Chang did was important: she made it well-known to the public, the average person.
That's fair.
Both the "Rape of Nanking" and "Thread of the Silkworm" were excellent books. This is very sad.
ping
Reminds me of Arkancides in Clintons Arkansas.
Yeah. It's got ME in a particularly glum mood today.
</:o(
No, haven't read the book. If you have, I'd love to get your brief take on it, especially the connections with that Unit 731 horror.
No, I haven't, but now I'm going to stop by the library on the way home to check it out. Thank you for the ping. Very sad story.
Beautiful young girl. Make no mistake, clinical depression is a potentially fatal illness. Such a tragedy.
Note post #61.
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